Grave Men by Tom Piccirilli

Author:Tom Piccirilli [Piccirilli, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Action & Adventure
Publisher: Crossroad Press

Chapter Ten

She wanted to make sure he was on hand and sober. He'd seen his sister only five times in as many years, each meeting lasting only a few minutes, once almost a full half hour. She'd hand over a saddlebag stuffed with bounty money, and that's how he and Gramps got by.

He knew he was a great disappointment to Molly, that he hadn't let the anguish fuel him in the same way it did her. Each of the five times she'd managed to draw herself back to Patience, he'd been so drunk that he hardly remembered what was said. Priest thought he might have held her once, maybe twice, hugging her petite, hard body to him and hanging on until his knees gave out. His own sister seemed to be just another part of the same dragging vague dream. He remembered the smooth barrel of a Smith & Wesson American .44 gently sweeping back and forth across the nape of his neck, and couldn't figure out why she hadn't pulled the trigger.

Now Molly was coming home and she was going to stay for a while.

Priest suddenly felt a great urgency to see Sarah, except it wasn't so sudden—the pressure had been growing all morning until his heart was now kicking against his ribs. He tried her house again and she still wasn't at home. He didn't want to press his already strained luck any further, but he realized that he had to go to the Home Hearth to find her.

Thistles swept over his boots. He could smell the sourness of his own sweat as the breeze picked up and layered crisp waves of air around him. The stink of himself overpowered Priest for a moment, so that he stood in front of Hasseler's General Store holding his breath, trying to beat back the pulse of his own past. It didn't work, it never did, but at least he didn't have to smell himself for a minute there. Priest let his lungs fill again and stood gasping, heading for the Home Hearth.

The impulse to talk with Sarah grew stronger until he was running. He hit the door to the theater and saw that his hand was quivering. He still didn't know why. What could he prove to her by bursting in like this? Nothing that needed to be done had even been approached yet. Was he set to marry her? A half hour ago he'd been searching out Patty's thighs and hoping to lay her again. What the hell was he going to say? It didn't matter. He walked inside with his mind completely clear. If Griff was here, then one of them would have to die.

He'd kill to see her—that's how bad it had gotten. It had something to do with the baby, with either the one they'd lost or the one that Molly was carrying.

Sarah wasn't on stage. Priest checked for Septemus's seat of honor in the balcony, expecting him to be there, tending his loose teeth with sherry.

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